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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Prompt: Did you or your ancestors travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel and who traveled with you? Do you remember any special trips? We didn’t travel a great distance for Christmas. When I was young, all the family was in the same city. We’d usually do Christmas Eve with my father’s side of […]

Prompt: Did your family ever volunteer with a charity such as a soup kitchen, homeless or battered women’s shelter during the holidays? Or perhaps were your ancestors involved with church groups that assisted others during the holiday? My children are still too young to really understand volunteering with a charity but it’s something I would […]

Prompt: Did your family or friends also celebrate other traditions during the holidays such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Did your immigrant ancestors have holiday traditions from their native country which they retained or perhaps abandoned? My family and friends, for the most part, celebrate just Christmas. As all of my ancestors arrived in North America […]

Prompt: What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give? Are there specific gift-giving traditions among your family or ancestors? For many years – since fairly early on in childhood, really – my favourite gifts have been books. Whether I’m giving them or receiving them, there are always books at Christmas. It’s the librarian […]

Today’s advent calendar prompt is an author’s choice on a topic that helps me remember Christmases past. For me, one of the key remembrances of Christmas past is the Stocking Party. Let me start by saying that in addition to my grandparents I was lucky enough to have two very involved great-aunts. They never married and took […]

We have always baked cookies for Christmas. When I was young, my mother and other family members baked many different kinds – from shortbread to sugar cookies to Nanaimo bars to fruit cake to rum balls to these really neat marshmallow chocolate logs. We used to have a big family Christmas party where all these […]

When I was young my parents held a Christmas party at the end of November. It was for all the family – aunts, uncles, cousins. It was lots of fun to see everybody. There were enough of us that we didn’t get together en masse very often. I particularly remember the year it was held […]

As a child, I regularly sent letters to Santa Claus with my list of requests and to assure him I had been very good. Canada Post had a special service that would send a letter from Santa back to any child that wrote to him. (They still do it. If you’re in Canada you can send a […]

I actually don’t remember much in the way of outdoor decorations from when I was really little. From about the time I was 10 or 11 though I do recall Dad putting lights out on the bushes and trees in front of the house along with a coloured flood light. He would also sometimes put […]

My parents always sent Christmas cards and I remember being quite excited when we received one. I still like receiving them, though they are much less common than they used to be. I was always particularly interested in those that came from ‘away’ and tended to hope for a stamp or two from somewhere outside Canada. For […]